Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours
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Darkness is starting to set in and the headlights are making picking out cars pretty difficult, but that's the charm of Le Mans, isn't it!
A great battle between the #199 and the #9 for second in LMP2 as Deletraz puts the former ahead - the move complicated by a Cadillac making its way through on the inside.
This race isn't panning out as we'd expected. Ferrari has a much bigger advantage than anyone expected, but at least it's a close battle between the three 499Ps. Pier Guidi is edging towards race leader Molina, and Ye is making progress in his pursuit of Pier Guidi - he's about a second behind.
The stint that Ye has put together has been pretty outstanding really - the gap to Porsche's #6 now over 20 seconds as the sixth hour draws to a close.
And as the first quarter of this great race elapses, I'll bow out for now and hand over to Ben Vinel who will use his expertise to take you into the night!
Thanks Ewan! After doing six to 12 hours of live commentary in the previous nine Le Mans, I'm here for just the next three hours, and still fresh. Let's see how the race evolves, it's so tight in all three classes!
The #51 Ferrari driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi just pitted, but before that, all three red (well, one is yellow) cars were within five seconds at the front of the field.
Back to cool racing T-shirts. Someone sitting near the Autosport/motorsport.com enclave is wearing a nice one paying tribute to the 'Pink Pig' Porsche 917/20 that raced here at Le Mans in 1971. The livery - and our neighbour's T-shirt - proclaimed the different cuts of pork. Wonder if it subliminally affected my choice for dinner - I went for the pork!
You may remember how Paul Di Resta made Peugeot's race even harder when he crashed the #93 in the Porsche curves as he attempted to overtake the #150 Ferrari GT3.
"For some reason the GT car parked itself in the middle of the road and I got a bit of aero wash, lost the rear," Di Resta explained. "Rather than hit it, I chose to think there was more space and I wouldn't hit the wall. Unfortunately I hit the wall and took the front- and rear-end damage.
"But when you've got the performance we have, you have to take a bit more risks. And that's what led to what happened, because I was trying to keep a slipstream from the Porsche in front."
The gap at the front has been pretty stable in the LMP2 class. VDS Panis Racing's Oliver Gray still leads AO by TF's Louis Deletraz by some eight seconds. Reshad de Gerus and Nick Yelloly are right behind for Iron Lynx - Proton and Inter Europol Competition.
All three Ferrari Hypercars have pitted, which means that the #6 Porsche is temporarily leading with Matt Campbell at the wheel.
Campbell pits and emerges in fourth. Ye (#83) gets the lead from Molina (#50) and Pier Guidi (#51)... with all three Ferraris within 1.5s.
Darren Leung seems to have given up on restarting the #95 McLaren, which caused a full-course yellow when it stopped on the Mulsanne straight. The Briton has taken his helmet off.
Ye now leads Molina by one second, Pier Guidi by three, and Campbell by 20.
Ye was on a charge in the run-up to that round of pitstops and got the overcut. The driver of the yellow Ferrari clawed back the deficit to the red ones in the laps after they pitted - race leader Molina came in three laps before him in #50 and Pier Guidi two in #51.
A former Renault F1 junior (like a number of drivers currently enjoying success in motorsport), Ye joined Ferrari in 2024 after impressing in endurance, winning the 2021 ELMS title. This seems to be paying off for him.
In GT3, Team WRT's Kelvin van der Linde is slowly pulling away in the #46 BMW, enjoying a 26-second gap on Manthey's #92 Porsche before the latter pitted.
We know staying on the lead lap will be critical in this race, as the single safety car will bunch up all those cars (which not everybody appreciates). As of now, 18 Hypercars are still on the lead lap – all but the #101 Cadillac, the #93 Peugeot and the #007 Aston Martin.
Drama at Mulsanne! The #94 Peugeot – the only one still on the lead lap – was spun around by the #35 Alpine. Two Frenchmen, Loic Duval and Paul-Loup Chatin, were in action; Duval had to go around the roundabout, like Kobayashi earlier.
Talking about Peugeot, the French marque has been trying to offset its lack of competitivity (which the squad is very upset with) with strategy – having longer stints but changing tyres every two stints, when most other cars go four stints with each tyre set.
“Given we’re not really in the fight, we have to do something different with strategy,” Stoffel Vandoorne explained.
It's still pretty tight between the Ferraris at the front of the Hypercar field. Ye (#83) has a two-second gap on Molina (#50) and Pier Guidi (#51), who are battling.
Porsche's Campbell has been keeping the same pace as the Ferraris, with a 23-second deficit to the leader. The #8 Toyota has just pitted from fifth, Ryo Hirakawa was already 45 seconds down. Sebastien Buemi is taking over.
In LMP2, Oliver Gray has handed the class-leading VDS Panis entry to Esteban Massot, with their lead over AO by TF's Louis Deletraz up to 19 seconds.
Pier Guidi has pitted the #51 Ferrari from third, with a full service – fuel and new tyres. It's now fourth, 97 seconds away from the lead, but the sister cars will pit soon.
Same strategy for Miguel Molina's #50 Ferrari, with refuelling and a tyre change during this pitstop. It rejoins with Nicklas Nielsen at the wheel... 11 seconds ahead of the #51!
Ye Yifei has pitted the leading #83 Ferrari, with Phil Hanson taking over.
The #83 Ferrari now leads the #50 and #51 cars by six and 14 seconds respectively. What used to be a close fight is now a bit more spread out.
"I think we are missing some pace from the damage from the first stint when Ricky got hit at the start," Jordan Taylor said. "Yeah, we lost a bit of ground at the beginning with the tire issue. We are just trying to make up ground and hopefully get through the night cleanly and go racing tomorrow."
The #101 Cadillac is in 15th with a 3m29s deficit for Wayne Taylor Racing's first Le Mans outing.
There's a full service for the #6 Porsche, which was briefly leading again as it's out of sync compared to the three Ferraris. Kevin Estre has taken the wheel after Matt Campbell's stint. It's now 31 seconds down, just seven seconds ahead of the #12 Cadillac Jota car driven by Norman Nato.
There's an interesting battle for 11th between Duval's #94 Peugeot, Aitken's #311 Cadillac and Andlauer's #5 Porsche. Let's see how this one goes.
Well, Aitken found a way past while I was writing this, so I didn't see how it happened. But it did! The Whelen Cadillac is up in 11th, 97 seconds from the lead.
The #50 Ferrari, the #311 Cadillac and the #93 Peugeot get drive-through penalties for yellow-flag infringements. That might drop the red car out of the top three.
It's 11:14pm, so still time to wish a happy birthday to our WEC correspondent Gary Watkins, who's sat opposite me and celebrated with an unreasonable amount of candy throughout the day. He has spent most of his life's birthdays here in Le Mans.
Here's a thing. Everyone talks about the distance record at Le Mans never being beaten - the 397 laps completed by the winning Audi R18-plus TDI in 2010. Well, we're averaging somewhere just over 16 laps an hour - and it was 17 laps for each of the first three hours. We only need to complete 16.6 an hour and the record will fall. Only two FCYs so far - and no safety cars. No rain forecast. Could it happen? Yes, but don't bet the farm on it. There will surely be enough yellow flag running to put it out of reach.
Meanwhile, the #50 Ferrari has executed its drive-through penalty and did emerge in third, but only just ahead of the #6 Porsche.
Following its collision with the #94 Peugeot at Mulsanne corner, the #35 Alpine got a drive-through penalty.
In GT3, it's business as usual. Team WRT's Van der Linde keeps ekeing the gap to Manthey's Hardwick in a BMW vs Porsche long-distance battle, with his advantage now up to 48s.
The record number of finishers at Le Mans is 53, back in 2022. So far, we've lost three out of 62 in seven hours and a half, so we're on 59. The record could be beaten.
Estre has overtaken Nielsen for third position, with the #6 Porsche now pulling away from the #50 Ferrari.
Second-placed James Calado has brought the gap to Phil Hanson's leading #83 Ferrari under 10s in the sister #51 car... but that didn't last long.
By: Autosport staff
